Ask CRAFT: Sewing Rubber and Other Sticky Materials

Craft & Design Yarncraft

rubberstrapbag.jpg

Bernadette Noll writes in:

I’ve got a question for you. We’ve been sewing rubber inner tubes recycled from the local bike shop. You can see a picture on our blog of the cool bags we’ve been making. We love the materials and there are oodles of them being thrown away but we’d like to make the sewing of the rubber simpler. Do you have any suggestions for running the rubber through easily?

The rubber has an extremely smooth, nonporous surface, the same as most sewing machines. The two surfaces stick together, making it hard to pass the rubber through the sewing machine. The only solution I’ve seen to this problem is to use a piece of tissue paper, newsprint, or other thin paper in between the rubber and the machine. Use a heavy-duty needle and thread to avoid snaps and tangles, and make sure your presser foot tension (how hard it presses down on the material) is set correctly for the thickness of material you’re sewing through. When you’ve sewn the rubber, you can simply tear the paper away; it will have been perforated by the needle.

If you have a question for Ask CRAFT, shoot me an email at becky@craftzine.com, or drop us a tweet! We’d love to answer your crafty questions on any topic: technique, projects, crafty culture, or anything else! Each week the answers are here; include your name, where you’re from, and your website or blog if you have one!

10 thoughts on “Ask CRAFT: Sewing Rubber and Other Sticky Materials

  1. Nobody writes them like they used to says:

    you can use masking tape. It will hold things in place, and runs easily through the machine :D

  2. kat says:

    Thought I’d shoot you an answer. The easiest thing I’ve found is to purchase a teflon sheet, and a cut a hole in it the same size as the feed dogs on your sewing machine…. use double sided tape to stick it to the machine’s bed.
    The second part is to go and find a teflon coated foot for your machine, the two of these together are AMAZING.

  3. martha bleakley says:

    couldn’t you just sprinkle some corn starch on the rubber before feeding it through and then whipe off when finished? That’s what I do to other stucky thigns to make them non-sticky. Seems like it’d work fine to me.

  4. Anonymous says:

    i second the teflon foot & sheet. if you’re making more than one bag it’s totally worth getting.

  5. Emory says:

    I agree about the teflon. I’ve never used a teflon sheet, but I’ve been using PUL fabric recently and it’s a mess to sew without my teflon foot.

  6. Betty Andrews says:

    Wipe the needle with silicone pray. That helps a little too.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Isn’t that material the same as is used in rubber fetish clothing? A lot of the seams on that are glued, not sewn. I’m not exactly sure how it is done though, might be worth looking into

  8. Marek says:

    Dust the rubber with talc.
    This is cycling tip. We coat our tubes with talc before mounting them on the wheel. It prevents pinches.

  9. Leslie says:

    My problem is that the bobbin side thread was bunching but now that I changed the needle and the thread the thread is snapping. Not sure what the problem is. It was working perfectly before and now all I am having is problems. Ready to give up.

  10. Eugen Oros says:

    I agree with the paper solution but it is time consuming and bad for production time, one of the options is to buy specialized footers and some other equipment that are designed for “rubbery” materials,and maybe use some silicon oil for even better performance of the sewing machine. I am a sewing machine technician/mechanic so I’ve dealt with this type of problems before . So feel free to contact me since i don’t usually visit this site often. Mail is egimechanics@gmail.com if you have any further questions.

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Becky Stern is a Content Creator at Autodesk/Instructables, and part time faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts Products of Design grad program. Making and sharing are her two biggest passions, and she's created hundreds of free online DIY tutorials and videos, mostly about technology and its intersection with crafts. Find her @bekathwia on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram.

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